#BlackOutDay celebrates individuality

Janae Hunter |
3/6/2015, 5:18 p.m.

Promo photo via thefilesof.nukirk.com

Creator of the #BlackOutDay campaign T'von (from Tumblr)

Tumblr and Twitter users are celebrating what will be the first of many “Black Out Days.” Users created the hashtag #BlackOutDay to celebrate Black beauty and individuality. On the first Friday of every month, users are encouraged to post selfies and videos of themselves via social media.

The campaign was started by a Tumblr user named T'von, who runs the blog “expect-the -greatest”. He got the idea to start the hashtag because he noticed that typically only European standards of beauty are praised. He believed that Blacks deserved a time for appreciating their beauty.

“Black History Month is always excellent, but one month isn’t enough to celebrate our heritage and our beauty,” T'von said in a post on his Tumblr page. “We need a unified agreeance that ALL black people are beautiful and worthy of praise and admiration, and Blackout day is a step towards that.”

BlackOutDay has been one of the top trending topic all day on Twitter, with over 200 thousand people and counting using the hashtag.

"It’s beautiful and a testament to just how many black people are on social media," YouTube personality Franchesca Ramsey told ABC News in an interview. "We are one of the most engaged audiences, and it’s powerful and exciting to see our celebration being seen and heard."

Check out T'von's Tumblr page here and check out the hashtag #BlackOutDay on Twitter and Tumblr.